This invention relates to a connector device and, in particular, relates to a connector device which is attached to an electric car or a hybrid car to transmit electric power supplied from a power system.
For example, this type of connector device is disclosed in JP 2002-343169A (Patent Document 1), the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Referring to FIG. 20, Patent Document 1 discloses a connector device 900 which comprises a connector 910 and a mating connector 950. The connector 910 comprises a housing 920, a lever 930 and a sub-connector 940. The lever 930 is attached to the housing 920 so as to be turnable relative to the housing 920. The lever is formed with a cam groove 935. The sub-connector 940 is held by the housing 920 so as to be movable relative to the housing 920 in an upper-lower direction (Z-direction). The mating connector 950 comprises a mating housing 960. The mating housing 960 is formed with a cam projection 965. In addition, the mating housing 960 is provided with a mating sub-connector 970 which is a part of the mating housing 960. When the lever 930 is turned under a state where the cam projection 965 is received in the cam groove 935, the connector 910 is moved relative to the mating connector 950 in the upper-lower direction. When the lever 930 is subsequently moved in a horizontal direction (X-direction), the sub-connector 940 is mated with the mating sub-connector 970.
According to Patent Document 1, when the connector 910 is assembled, the lever 930 needs to be attached to the housing 920 with high positional accuracy. If the lever 930 is improperly positioned relative to the housing 920, it is impossible to properly position the cam projection 965 of the mating housing 960 relative to the cam groove 935 of the lever 930 while properly positioning the housing 920 relative to the mating housing 960. As a result, the connector 100 cannot be properly mated with the mating connector 950.